


Insomnia

by waywardriot



Series: Vanven Week 2019 [6]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, VanVen Week (Kingdom Hearts)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:54:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21976201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waywardriot/pseuds/waywardriot
Summary: Plagued with insomnia as always, one night Vanitas has an unexpected run-in with a cute stranger who ends up being less annoying than he originally thought.Vanven Week Day 6: Restless
Relationships: Vanitas/Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: Vanven Week 2019 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1576738
Comments: 20
Kudos: 71





	Insomnia

**Author's Note:**

> day 6! we're almost to the end... this might be my only au thing for this week, although if i can finish my current idea then tomorrow's will be an au as well. i just wanted something chill and relaxed for this one, so i hope it's good!

Vanitas has never been one to sleep well, even back when he was a child; no reason has been found for this terrible insomnia, and god, how he misses sleeping for a full eight hours in a row. 

It usually gets to the point that he has to go on a walk, driven to nervous frustration by his helplessness, although that’s difficult when living in the dorms where it’s well below freezing outside. His only choice is to trudge around the hallways and ignore the looks from students coming back from parties in the early hours who obviously think he’s crazy, and perhaps he is.

On this night, different from no other, Vanitas finds himself wandering towards the kitchen for his routine of idly checking the fridge for whatever he can scrounge up as a distraction from his incessant need to move; however, a wrench is thrown into his plan when he enters the kitchen only to find someone already there. Great. 

This newcomer, if Vanitas remembers correctly, moved into the dorms very recently towards the end of the semester, making him somewhat of an outcast compared to the people living in their residence hall who have gotten accustomed to each other. Well, to be fair Vanitas is definitely an outcast himself, so they’re birds of a feather in one respect.

Though he hasn't officially met the stranger, he's seen him across campus a few times and has gotten the impression that he's a little scatterbrained—even his hair gives it away, looking like bedhead to compliment his under-eye bags and the blanket draped around his shoulders.

“Why are you... making tea at 3:45 in the goddamn morning?” Vanitas asks tiredly, squinting against the light.

“Oh! Hi,” the person says, turning to Vanitas and giving him a smile that's too bright for this early-late hour. "It’s just cold and I can't sleep. I was hoping that some tea or something would help, but..." He stares down at the multicolored mug on the counter, drawing the teabag up and down in it as it steeps. “I don't know. I think I'm done trying for the night, anyways.” Looking to Vanitas, he points to the electric kettle near him, still plugged into the wall. “Want some? The water's still hot.”

“I don't drink tea,” Vanitas says flatly before going over to the fridge. He’s really not even that hungry, but he's mostly just trying to get rid of this restlessness that won't leave him alone tonight. It seems that he's in the same boat as this stranger, but he's far crankier about it and would rather not talk at all. No use in getting to know yet another bright-eyed, ditzy student, and certainly not at nearly 4AM.

“You should try it. I'm guessing you can't sleep either... so maybe it'll help you?”

“I think I'm done trying to sleep for the night,” Vanitas replies dryly, echoing the stranger's words. “No fucking point.” He slams the door to the fridge shut a little too forcefully, half a leftover sandwich on a plate in hand, and the stranger winces at the sound.

“Uh… You should probably be a little more careful. Everyone else is asleep.”

“I don’t care,” Vanitas mutters, too grumpy to give a shit about anyone else here at the moment—most of them are used to his strange antics by now, anyways. “If you’re going to nag me, then leave.”

That gets a reaction out of the stranger, who raises an eyebrow. “Last I checked, this kitchen is communal. Y’know, for everyone,” he says dryly as he chucks his teabag in the garbage and then wraps his hands around his mug of tea. After taking a sip, he regards Vanitas with a critical eye, giving him a once-over. It’s awkward and lasts long enough that Vanitas is about to snap at him to cut it the hell out when the stranger speaks once again. “My name’s Ventus, but call me Ven. What’s yours?”

Vanitas ignores Ventus for the time being, instead slowly walking over to the shitty table on the other side of the kitchen and sitting in one of the godforsakenly uncomfortable chairs—with the price of his tuition, one would _really_ think they could get better furniture for the dorms. He takes his time kicking out one chair, sitting down, and taking a bite of his sandwich while he gives Ventus a once-over just as Ventus had done to him. “Vanitas,” he answers, somewhat garbled due to his bad habit of talking with his mouth full.

“What was that?”

Vanitas slowly finishes chewing and swallows the bite, wondering if he can get Ventus to leave him alone just by freaking him out. “Vanitas.”

“Vanitas. Okay.” Ventus gives him another smile and walks over to the table, tugging out one chair with his foot and sitting down diagonally from him. “Nice to meet you.”

Vanitas rolls his eyes and grunts. Apparently Ventus can’t take a hint, as literally the last thing Vanitas wants is for Ventus to bother him any longer.

“Why can’t you sleep?” Ventus asks after taking another sip, still watching Vanitas with his eyes that are freakishly blue and annoyingly curious.

Once again, Vanitas takes another slow bite of his sandwich and stares at the wall across the kitchen from him as he chews; Ventus simply snorts in response, so perhaps he did pick up on the passive aggressiveness of his intentional delays. “Insomnia,” Vanitas eventually replies.

Ventus nods sagely and takes a sip of his tea that’s just as slow as Vanitas’s bite, and despite himself, Vanitas smiles a little in reaction—and then promptly hides that by taking another huge bite of his sandwich. It’s obvious Ventus saw the smile judging by the look on his face, and Vanitas only turns more sullen. “That’s the worst,” Ventus earnestly replies, adjusting his blanket. “I think I’m just really restless because of sleeping in a new place. I’ve never lived away from home, but I had to move in with short notice.”

“Living in the dorms was not the wisest choice for your first time moving away from home,” Vanitas replies, leaning back in his seat as he gestures with his sandwich. “I’m pretty sure the walls are insulated with tissue paper and I’ve never seen all the toilets in order at once.”

Ventus wrinkles his nose and sticks out his tongue a little—it’s almost cute, if Vanitas would dare let that thought form. “I’m pretty sure I heard the person next to me having sex last night,” Ventus whispers like it’s a conspiracy, leaning forward, “and it sounded like _really bad sex_.”

Oh, boy. This kid must be so innocent, and Vanitas is surprised that being in college hasn’t already ruined that. He can’t help but laugh a little before he finishes off his sandwich and folds his arms across his chest. “Someone was having sex in the dorms, of all places. Of _course_ it was bad sex.”

Ventus, taking a sip of his tea, seems to choke on it and slams the mug on the table as he starts coughing. All Vanitas does is watch with a raised eyebrow as Ventus thumps a fist against his chest and wheezes a little, which is quite the spectacle.

Once Ventus has caught his breath again, face red, he nasally complains, “I think it almost came out of my nose…”

Ventus looks so distressed that Vanitas laughs again; he wonders what it is about Ventus that’s making him laugh so much when he’s definitely not one to express emotions like that around strangers, but he decides to just deal with it. “Charming,” he chuckles, getting up and grabbing his plate. As he goes to the sink and starts to wash the dish off, he feels Ventus’s eyes on his back and uncomfortably shifts on his feet. Just to mess with Ventus and chase away his own awkwardness, he asks without looking back, “Are you checking me out?”

Ventus makes a noise that sounds akin to a strangled squawk, and Vanitas can tell he’s blushing without even seeing it. “What!” Ventus sputters, “No! I’m not even looking at you!”

The question had been meant entirely as a joke, but by how excessive Ventus’s reaction is, Vanitas wonders if he really had been checking him out. Perhaps he’d find that repulsive, but he thinks about it as he washes and comes to the conclusion that yeah, Ventus is sort of cute, so he doesn’t need to get overly rude about it. “Uh-huh. If you say so.”

With a huff, Ventus comes back to the counter as well, and Vanitas briefly glances over to him as Ventus quickly touches the kettle to judge how hot it still is. Apparently deeming it good enough, he busies himself with pouring himself another mug of tea and putting another teabag in. 

After he puts the dish in the drying rack, Vanitas turns around and leans against the counter, watching Ventus, and Ventus does the same thing at almost the exact same time while he waits for his tea to steep. There’s an awkward silence as they judge each other, apparently having an impromptu staring contest, but Ventus eventually breaks it by blurting out, “Do you want to watch a movie?”

“What?” Vanitas asks, caught a little off guard. 

Ventus’s cheeks turn even more red, and he rubs the back of his neck—perhaps a nervous tic, Vanitas notes, although he’s not sure why he does. “Uh, I was just going to go back to my room and watch a movie to waste time until it’s a reasonable time to be awake. I, um, figured that if you can’t sleep either…” Obviously embarrassed, he turns back around, bobbing the teabag in the mug before throwing it away. “But if you don’t want to, that’s fine. It was just a stupid idea.”

Vanitas is a little dumbfounded by this and has to stop to think once again. Of course, his natural instinct is to say no and perhaps tell Ventus to fuck off, but a dumb little part of him says _why not?_ It’s not like it’ll kill him, and he _is_ bored out of his goddamn mind after hours of browsing the internet and trying (and failing) to study. Worse comes to worse, he can leave and avoid Ventus for the rest of time. 

If this ends badly, he can blame this decision on the tired part of his brain anyways, so that’s why he answers, “Sure. Why not.”

Even Ventus seems surprised by the answer, and he turns back around to look at Vanitas owlishly. Then, a tiny smile spreads on his lips, and he nods as he picks up his mug and motions for Vanitas to follow. “Come on.”

Hands shoved in his pockets, Vanitas does as told and trails behind Ventus as they head upstairs and then down a narrow hallway. While Ventus fumbles in his pocket for his keys, Vanitas studies his door, decorated with a whiteboard reading ‘ _Ventus :)_ ’ and covered with few assorted colorful magnets. Sort of cute, once again. 

Vanitas notices how Ventus’s hands are trembling the slightest bit, but before he can offer to help with the lock, Ventus manages to open the door and nearly stumbles into his room. For a few moments Vanitas looks it over—somewhat in disarray, although not too messy as to be uncomfortable. Besides that, it’s essentially like any college-aged boy’s dorm, thankfully a single room so they don’t have to deal with another presence.

While Vanitas stares, Ventus putters around the room and grabs his laptop and a pair of earbuds before rearranging the pillows and settling against the headboard with his legs under the blankets. “Come in. Or are you a vampire?”

Vanitas rolls his eyes and waves a hand before entering, and then he toes off his shoes before climbing onto the bed as well. Unfortunately, the beds provided at the dorms are not very wide at all and definitely cramped, so Vanitas hesitates as he tries to figure out how to sit without being awkwardly smashed up next to Ventus. 

Ventus snorts lightly and pats the mattress next to him, scooting a little closer to the wall to provide Vanitas more space. “Just sit. I don’t bite,” he says with a small, quiet laugh. 

“Har-har,” Vanitas replies dryly, but he somewhat hesitantly does as instructed and sits down next to Ventus with his back pressed to the headboard, only covering himself with the blankets when motioned to do so. “What were you going to watch?”

“Some shitty Netflix movie. They’re entertaining to make fun of,” Ventus hums as he opens his laptop and pulls up the browser. “Do you care what genre?”

“Not really. Take your pick.” Vanitas shifts around to try to get more comfortable as Ventus chooses some obviously cheesy straight Christmas romance, one he can already tell is going to be horrible just from the title. It wouldn’t have been Vanitas’s first choice, but he did give Ventus free rein, so he doesn’t argue with it. 

After plugging in the earbuds and placing the laptop over both their laps, Ventus offers Vanitas one side of the earbuds as the movie loads and whispers, “Here. So we don’t wake everyone up with this garbage.”

“That would probably be good revenge for your neighbor making you hear terrible sex,” he whispers back with a small snort of laughter. 

“True… But the neighbor on this side,” Ventus quietly replies, pointing at the wall he’s pressed up against, “hasn’t done anything terrible, so I’ll take mercy on them.”

“How kind,” Vanitas chuckles softly. When the movie finally starts, delayed thanks to the dorm’s shitty Wi-Fi, he quiets down and watches with an amused expression on his face. Ventus, sipping his tea, gives Vanitas a noticeable sideways look, but he ignores it.

Right from the start, the movie is shitty and overly cliched with horrible acting and bad direction to boot. “Of course she’s waiting for her _‘Christmas miracle’_ ,” Vanitas quietly snarks, making finger quotes. “Why are these miracles always romance?”

“Right? Why not, like, a million bucks?” Ventus snickers back. 

The movie just gets progressively worse from there, and Vanitas and Ventus continue making fun of it, barely managing to restrain their laughter to refrain from waking anyone else up. There are occasional comments about their lives interspersed in as relevant, and strangely enough Vanitas finds himself actually wanting to know more about someone for a change—what an odd feeling. 

Because they’re trying to keep their voices as quiet as possible, they keep leaning closer and closer towards each other and before Vanitas knows it, their heads are resting against each other, nearly cheek to cheek. Now, Vanitas isn’t really one for physical contact, definitely not this close and _absolutely_ not with people he barely knows, but he can’t will himself to draw away. 

And he also can’t will himself to draw away when Ventus’s hand creeps closer to where his is resting on his own thigh. At first he wonders if he’s imagining the motion, then he wonders if Ventus even realizes what he’s doing, and then he wonders if Ventus really means it. 

The way Ventus slips his hand into his is entirely casual, and he doesn’t even address it as he whispers another comment into Vanitas’s ear. Vanitas briefly wonders if he imagined it, but when he darts his eyes downwards, they are indeed holding hands. Ventus’s hand is small but very warm and reassuring, and the grip is loose enough to allow Vanitas to escape if he wishes but not so loose that it seems uncaring. 

Unintentionally holding his breath, Vanitas affixes his eyes to the screen and tightens his hold on Ventus’s hand enough to signal that this is okay. 

Although he’s too embarrassed to look, Vanitas can practically feel the smile on Ventus’s face, and he can’t help but smile a little himself when Ventus fully leans his head on his shoulder and shifts even closer. 

By the end of the movie they’re snuggled up even more, Ventus’s legs drawn up and his free hand holding onto Vanitas’s arm, still holding his hand with the other. It’s too cozy to disturb, so when the end-of-movie screen comes up, Ventus just quickly clicks on the next recommended movie and returns to holding Vanitas’s arm again. 

While they begin to watch the new movie, Vanitas carefully laces their fingers together, still steadfastly refusing to look at Ventus lest his blush be seen, illuminated by the light of the laptop. He’s very grateful that Ventus doesn’t really acknowledge the action either, because it’s better to just soak it in and enjoy the moment, anyways.  
  
  


* * *

  
  
Vanitas has no idea exactly when they fell asleep, but when he wakes up, the sun is shining through the shitty blinds and his arm is cramping up where it feels like Ventus is laying on top of it, as they must’ve shifted to that position sometime during the night.

With a quiet groan, he groggily opens his eyes and looks over to find Ventus tucked into his side, mostly covered by the blankets; Vanitas himself is on his back while Ventus is pressed up close, halfway draped over him with his cheek resting on Vanitas’s shoulder and an arm slung across his middle. Luckily, the laptop is closed and humming quietly beneath Vanitas’s thigh instead of laying in pieces on the floor somewhere, so he would be content to just lay there if not for the loss of circulation in his arm.

Although he doesn’t want to wake Ventus, he gently eases his arm out from beneath him and shakes it out a little to try to get feeling back into it. It’ll definitely take some time, so he simply wraps it around Ventus’s shoulders and sighs a little. He hasn’t cuddled with someone in what feels like ages, but this reminds him how nice it can be. 

Thinking, he idly slides his hand into Ventus’s hair and gently twists his fingers into the blond curls, and Ventus wakes up after a couple minutes of petting. “Mmm?” is what he greets Vanitas with, not even lifting his head from his shoulder. 

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” Vanitas replies, his voice thick with sleep. 

“Huh… Good morn— _agh!”_ Ventus cries out, suddenly propping himself up by leaning on his forearm on Vanitas’s chest. Blindly reaching over him to shuffle over his bedside table, he says, panicked, “I have class, oh my god!”

Vanitas watches Ventus with an amused look on his face and slides his hand down to his lower back, content to just enjoy the moment. Really, he would think he’d feel far more awkward about waking up with a practical stranger, but all they did was watch a movie, anyways; still, he’s surprised by how relaxed he is about this.

Once Ventus grabs his phone, he visibly deflates and sets it down again before flopping down, face pressed to Vanitas’s chest. “Correction—I _had_ class,” he says, almost a whine. “It’s 2PM.”

“No wonder. We fell asleep at a horrible time,” Vanitas hums, scratching his nails against Ventus’s scalp with his free hand. “I have class in an hour.”

Ventus groans and drapes himself even more on top of Vanitas in an obvious attempt to stop him from getting up, which is both amusing and cute. “Fuck class.”

Vanitas sure wishes he could say ‘fuck it’ about class, but he really needs to go because there’s a quiz today and like hell is he ruining his grade. “Sorry, but I have to go get ready.”

Letting out a prolonged groan, Ventus pulls himself up and sits back on the bed, looking very groggy and with terrible bedhead. Vanitas sits up as well and scrubs a hand through his hair, sighing, and then forces himself to get up and grab his shoes.

Before he can get across the room, Ventus reaches out and grabs his wrist to get his attention. “Hey, um… What time do you get out of class?”

“Five o’clock.”

Ventus nods and then abruptly lets go of Vanitas’s wrist like he’d only just realized he was holding it. “Then… when you get out of class, um—would you like to grab some early dinner?”

“Like… a date?” Vanitas asks as he puts on his shoes now that he’s been released.

“Well, yeah.” Ventus looks down and rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, and Vanitas almost finds this sudden shyness endearing. “If you want! Or we can just go as friends,” he adds quickly.

Laughing a little, Vanitas straightens out his clothes and replies, “A date. I’d like that.”

Ventus breaks out into a huge smile, reaching out to the nightstand. “Here!” he chirps, handing his phone to Vanitas. “Put your number in!”

The smile Ventus gives him is so bright that Vanitas thinks he might need to shield his eyes from it rather than the afternoon sun. A small smile, not at all comparable to Ventus’s, dawns on his face as he enters his contact into Ventus’s phone quickly and gives it back.

Vanitas feels a buzz in his pocket when Ventus sends him a text, and he lifts up his hand casually. “I’ll text you when I’m out of class,” he tells him, heading to the door. “See ya later, Ventus.”

“Wait!”

Hand on the doorknob, Vanitas looks back at Ventus once again, raising his eyebrows.

“You… you can call me Ven, you know,” Ventus shyly mumbles, and Vanitas can’t help but laugh a little.

“Okay. Later, Ven.”

Before he can be convinced to stay because it looks like Ventus wants to ask, Vanitas slips out of the room and heads back to his own. He gets a few strange looks on the way and simply assumes that he looks horrible from having just woken up—but he’s not at all aware that it’s because he’s smiling more than anyone in the dorms has ever seen.

Maybe that’ll have to become a more normal thing.


End file.
